DiRT

    April is a wonderful time, it always has been for me.  Me and my 2 sisters, all born in April, two years between each of us.  I love the weather too.  As I have gotten older, the festivities associated with birthdays have dwindled, but at age 27, bound to my reluctance to accept number 28, I am excited for the progress made.  My chapter book, for kids ages 8-10 will be available via Amazon and Kindle.  I am particularly excited because this time I had the pleasure of working with a very talented artist some of you know, Brandon Ax.  This collaborative experience has taught me the benefit of letting go in your weaknesses and working harder on your strengths. 


   
    DiRT may not have the nicest clothes or the job of his dreams, but there is one thing he doesn't lack, and that's heart.  He has four of them in fact, and they ache for his secret crush, Chesnee Stillwater.  Love struck he finally gets the courage to ask her out, but plans don't always go the way you imagine they will.  Problems at work, out growing his home and humiliated in front of everyone, Dirt thinks that things could not get worse.  Dirt had no idea.  Sulking about his miserable life, Dirt gets caught off guard and is snatched by a fisherman.  Barely escaping death from a hook as large as he was, Dirt is saved by a falling leaf.  As he washes ashore an island, nothing could have prepared him for the danger, adventure and the lessons that stood in front of him.  A story of the power of love from the perspective of a worm named Dirt that is sure to make you reassess your ideas of happiness, Dirt is sure to make you laugh, smile and reflect on what matters most, the one's you love.


    

You Are Your Worst Critic

   

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      Writing is difficult at times because we have an understanding that no matter what we write about, somehow part of who we are and how we think is in there.  We reference past relationships or use friends and family as a mirror to our characters.  Sometimes the ideals and morality that is told in a story, whether fictional or not, has an undertone that comes from a personal place.  Because I am aware of this it makes it difficult to write sometimes.  I am a clam when it comes to most of the matters of my life so if I say too much, even indirectly, it comes through to someone that is also a writer. 


     I like to keep a certain amount of my identity to myself, and for this reason I struggle at times to write as freely as I think.  I have slowly learned that I can't hide myself from my writing because it is so much a part of what I do that without including it, I really don't have a lot to say.  So if you are insecure about showing yourself in your writing, you shouldn't be.  It just might be the best part anyway.  

Daily Success

      I received a gift yesterday that to most people would not be an emotional one.  I received a bed.  Now I know it may come as a surprise, but everyone does not have this common comfort available to them.  Due to some life changing events in my life, I have been without this comfort for months.  Granted, I have learned of several things you can sleep on through personal experience that are the "Do Not's" of good rest.  Nothing can make you feel better than a great nights rest, and so it goes that without, you can feel pretty crumby. 


      Sometimes I catch myself forgetting that the biggest blessings that anyone could ask for are usually the ones that they have already been given.  A bed for example, although looked forward to resting on after a long day, was never itself thought of as a gift.  After all, most people have never done without, but after suffering through neck and back pains and exhaustions for the better part of four months, I couldn't help but getting teary eyed when I saw it. 


     We are all blessed with wonderful things, family, a warm place to stay, a way to get from point A to point B, or just having a place to go in the first place.  Somehow we appreciate these things, but fail to accept them as successes in themselves.  Sleeping upon that mattress, I felt like a King for the night, knowing the struggles that led me to be without, and seeing myself with once again.  Through any part of your life, you can feel overwhelmed and consumed with foresight that doesn't equal your reality, but if you realize your lows exceed many others highs, then I think you will learn to stop putting so much pressure on your future and learn to live in the successes of your day.  Nothing is more rewarding and it will help drive you without bringing you down.  Rest well, but live better.